And then there's always that old Communion hymn with the line, "We pray for those who wander from the fold/O bring them back, Good Shepherd of the sheep/Back to the Faith which saints believed of old,/Back to the Church, which still that Faith doth keep."

It is particularly disconcerting for me today, because I know so many of the people in the room, and that arouses the most unspeakerly temptation to let my mind wander from the text, trying to decide which half of the audience is which.

It was as if an unwritten law of American journalism had evolved, stating that the greater the institutional platform, and the more power it has to influence public opinion, the more carefully it must be used and the less it must wander from the accepted norms of American society.

"To move among one's resources, being receptive to alternative sources and new search ideas triggered by the materials that come into view. In our field … one may hypothesis that to WANDER promotes serendipity and enables useful sources that would not otherwise be discovered."